New this season - the Hortobágy collection

My fourth and final plane touched down at MSP at 11:25 pm on Wednesday.  Thanks to my good friend Kara, I was picked up and delivered to my house around 12:30am.  I got a solid eight hours of sleep in my own bed and woke feeling completely refreshed.  I believe jet lag has been avoided!  While I've already commented on the improvement of my swollen ankles and feet situation, here is visual proof that I am returning home ready to sport my full shoe collection.

These shoes did not return to the US.  They were stained, had a small hole working through on the left pinky toe and reeked to high heaven.  But I did like how slim my ankles looked in them! ;-)

Now for the real priorities...unpacking Thursday morning.  When it comes to some things (okay, a lot of things), I'm a real geek.  While most things are still strewn across the floor, first thing I did was dig out the pottery and table linens I bought in the Hortobágy and set the kitchen table.  Like I said, one must have their priorities straight.  I just love the look of the black-on-black pottery!

After coming home from the grocery store Thursday afternoon, my garage door opener wouldn't work and close the door.  Thursday night while I rinsed a bowl in the sink, I felt dripping on my feet.  The entire garbage disposal had dropped out from under the drain.  A light bulb in the bathroom burned out.  It felt like the house was retaliating for my two month absence, the way a disgruntled pet will pee everywhere when left alone too much.  Luckily I have an awesome brother who was stoked to play with his new cordless drill.  Check here for some of Aaron's other talents, as recorded by my other pretty cool brother Adam.  The garage door is working again, the plumbing under the kitchen sink is newly replaced, and I managed to replace the burned out light bulb myself.

As a travel blog, I guess it is safe to say this is the end.  Who knows, maybe a new purpose will be discovered.  Thanks for following along...

The light at the end of the tunnel

I don't have any pictures from Germany to share by post as of yet...they are all still on my camera.  As I'm working on Linde's computer with the German keyboard, typing is a much slower process and I wanted to get at least one post in for this last week and a half of my summer.

Unlike my fears, Germany has been very relaxing compared to the six weeks of Fulbright.  I spent three days with relatives in northwestern Germany and was able to be leisurely.  Linde picked me up at Agnes's on Tuesday and brought me to Ingolstadt, where I hadn't been back to since my time as a student 13 years ago.  I am pleased to announce that Ingolstadt hasn't changed too dramatically.  The H&M might have moved across the pedestrian way and the large bookstore is gone, but the majority is where and as I remembered it.

I have been able to serve as Linde's reason to visit all those places in a two-hour radius that one never goes to when you live somewhere, so each day has had a relatively full program of museums and castles, but usually starts out with a late morning of sleeping in!  :-)  Yesterday we went to the Kuhstall Cafe, which yes translates to cowstall cafe.  I thought it would be a renovated barn, but no, a loft cafe was built over a working diary barn with windows allowing customers to watch the cows below.  I never would have imagined that there would be a strange fascination to watch cows in all their manuered glory, relieving themselves while waiting for my coffee to come or eating my cake.  It wasn't just a cafe, but an experience...and one I surprisingly enjoyed.

So, in two days I board a series of four planes making my way toward home.  I honestly can't wait to be back!!

R.I.P. Faithful Friend

When preparing for this summer experience, I gave a lot of thought to which purse/bag to bring.  This one won because it was neutral in color, large enough to hold all my usual crap I drag around plus a laptop if needed and had the handy side pockets for a water bottle and/or camera.  It has served it's duty and unfortunately won't make it home for a proper burial.  You might be asking what is wrong...from the picture it looks fine.  After the second week of being crammed under a bus seat, the cording in one of the handles was crimped, which eventually broke and every day separated further and further.  This caused pressure points at the ends of the cording which dug into my shoulders.  This last week, the second handle broke as well, and the cordings in both broke in several more places.  To borrow a phrase from the Kafka Museum, "she died in the myth of a city called Prague". 

Tomorrow is our last full day in Prague and the last official day of the Fulbright-Hays seminar.  The last few days have been full of running around doing any last minute shopping and searching for those museums earlier missed.  As mentioned, I went to the Kafka Museum on Monday and it fulfilled its kafkaesque reputation.  I was actually laughing through the entire thing because of the absurdity of the lighting, sound and phrasing of the signage.  It was great!

On Saturday I'll be boarding a train for Münster, Germany.  My relatives (fourth cousins four times removed) live there and I'll be visiting with them for three days.  On Tuesday, my hostmom from Ingolstadt will be picking me up and taking me home for the final week.  I'm not 100% sure what my access to Internet will be like in the last 10 days, but I'll try to post if possible.